Ahead of her return to singles competition at Elimination Chamber in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on February 19, Esquire Middle East caught up with WWE Hall of Famer Lita about what’s driving her latest run, why she chose WWE over AEW, and whether there’s a future after this match.
Read our full conversation below:
I’m so excited to see you back in the ring at Elimination Chamber in Jeddah next week.
I am too!
But why now? What made this the right time to make a return?
It really mirrors everything about my career. From the day I debuted, I wasn’t supposed to debut, like there was no plan in place. Christian was hurt, or doing something else. They were like, throw those two kids out there. We’re like, great, cool, here we go!
Then when I walked out of the Royal Rumble, they Johnny Ace followed me out and said, ‘hey, what do you think about challenging Becky?’ It just kind of fell in place, there wasn’t like this long prep for it. There wasn’t this big grandiose plan that was set up for the perfect timing.
It was just like, ‘yeah, you want to do this? It’s in a couple weeks’. There was no time to overthink it. That’s how I work best, not overthinking things, going with my gut. I felt excited when I got the question posed to me. I didn’t think about everything that could possibly go wrong. I just focus on the opportunity that’s here.
Did you do feel ready for it? Because obviously, you weren’t preparing to come back. This wasn’t like months of training. So how are you preparing right now?
Fortunately, I had some heads up going into the rumble. I had already been training to be in the match. It’s a little bit different because it’s multi-person. There’s extraneous rules, as opposed to your standard set of moves. I’m already training now, doing my wind sprints, doing time in the ring, feeling comfortable and going,’ oh, yeah, I remember how to do this’. I’m getting that feeling back already.
I have these times in between my Raw tapings, where I can go back home, and I’ve been working with a local indie promotion here. They’ve just been so welcoming. They have an open door policy, I just go in there. There’s a lot of time that sitting in the ring makes you feel like you’re a wrestler again. So I’ve just been hanging out over there and reminding myself that I’m a wrestler, but I’ve convinced myself and I feel the right amount of nerves and the right amount of confidence.
Absolutely I think every single person that I’ve heard comments on you coming back, says how natural it feels. It doesn’t feel forced, doesn’t feel rusty, it just feels like this is where you’re supposed to be.
Yeah, who knows if this is where I’m supposed to be? Because I wasn’t thinking like that.
There’s obviously the ‘just like riding a bicycle’ aspect of it. But how does it feel different? What does coming back make you reflect on differently?
It feels better, because I feel like I’m a grounded person that stepped. I don’t eat sleep and breathe wrestling and everything in my life no longer depends on the ring, so it’s able to give perspective and let me think clearer and just go do my best, because my best has worked before. It’s just given me this really grounded approach.
Do you regret not coming back before?
I’ve never thought about that because I enjoy my life.I am surprised at how natural it all feels and how happy and it’s also combined with passion, going from being in a closed off section of the world and then emerging out into the world, the world that I’ve been a part of for so much of my adult life, the timing of that is also very serendipitous for me.
You did turn down an offer to go somewhere else. Could you walk me through that decision? Why was AEW not the right place to be, and what made WWE the right place for you to be?
AEW is doing exciting stuff. It’s brought new life in the industry. Any time there’s competition, it’s good. It revives the industry. When they reached out to me, I did consider it. I said, we can talk, I’m interested, you guys are doing some interesting stuff. But ultimately, upon talking to them, it just made me say to myself, ‘but I have all of these things already!’ I have those things with my home that I’ve known for 20 years, with the people that I’ve worked with for 20 years. Basically, I gave them my blessing. I said, I will watch you and I support you. And I want you guys to do great, but this just doesn’t feel like the right fit for me right now.
How do you feel that you’re a different person now than you once were?
I think that when you’re active, there are so many voices in your head, whether it’s producers, or fans, or the media getting at you, and putting doubt in your head. You’re constantly fighting that vicious cycle of wanting to be good enough, and also wanting to be better each week. When I stepped away, I could just reflect on the good parts of my career, the accolades I have, and feel really accomplished and good at what I did. To step away, live my own life and go, ok, oh, there is life outside of wrestling. I didn’t know that. Because when I’m there, that’s all I’m thinking about. I don’t feel as desperate, if that’s the right term, because when you’re fighting for that championship, actively as a full-time competitor, your eyes should be on that prize, you should be chasing that, right? Because you want to be at the top of your game. This almost feels like a ‘why not?’ kind of thing, as opposed to ‘my life will be over if this doesn’t happen’. And I think just being able to approach it with that, I just might be able to pull this off.
You never stepped away completely, and have remained a big part of the WWE. How are the conversations with the other competitors backstage different now that you’re competing again?
Oh, it’s so great. It’s so cool, because they’re so gracious, and so many of the current superstars tell me how I inspired them coming up. But now, I’m the one that needs a little extra confidence and support, having stepped away. They’re there, right before I go out of the curtain, or when I come back, they’re like, how are you feeling? Are you good? They say, ‘I’m excited to watch your segment’, and then coming back and they say, ‘that was awesome’. ‘You hit that moonsault like you never left!’ They’re inspiring me to adjust as much as I was able to inspire them to set them on their journey. It feels like a real honour that I did that. Now they’re paying me back, right now.
Obviously things are a bit different with Becky right now. But what are your conversations like with her? I’m sure she’s someone that just picked your brain immensely, because she’s such a huge student of the game.
I told her I saw something in her when she first got up there to the main roster, and it was so much bigger than NXT is or the independents, There’s a million people that have different opinions, and they’re all giving you different advice, which really gets in your head because you’re like, either I offend this legend, or this person, or this producer. How do I do that? I felt like my role with her was to have you go with your gut 100% of the time, don’t let creep in. When I saw her, when I saw ‘The Man’ catch fire, I was the biggest cheerleader. I was like, this is who I saw. This is who I saw that day I met you, this is where you need to be. Then I was thinking like, I was able to do in my generation to be like this. This is just propelling her. I was the first rung and she’s like the next eight rungs on that ladder. It gave me so much joy to see somebody just explode and be that top superstar.
I’ve always linked you two in my mind, which makes it so exciting to watch guys go head to head at Elimination Chamber in Jeddah. So what does it mean for you to come over here to the region to be able to show this part of the world?
I’m so excited, I love new experiences in life. I never thought I would be able to go to that region of the world, and then go as a guest, , not just somebody who’s going to have a backpack and just wander around. I’m proud to be part of something that’s so culturally important where there’s so much female representation on the show. This is the first time we’re having this huge Elimination Chamber match over there, it just feels so ‘how is this my life’. I just feel so honoured to be a part of it. I did just get news that Becky and I are the first women on a billboard over there being advertised for the event. It just keeps getting more exciting.
I think you’re going to be really inspired by the young women in Saudi Arabia.
Yeah, speaking to the women that have been able to wrestle over there, they’ve said, it’s a really powerful experience, because you see in the eyes of the women that are there watching that never thought they would be able to see two powerful women go at it and be in an event like this. And to be a part of that progress, I’m so honoured.
How longer do you see yourself being in the ring? Is this a one and done or is there a future down the line?
I don’t know. And I like that I don’t know. I don’t have any.. I’m just worried about Elimination Chamber right now. And thenafter Elimination Chamber, well, we’ll go from there. And that’s how I like it.
Get tickets to Elimination Chamber here.